To become a midwife

[Samantha312]

I am thinking of completely changing my career and becoming a midwife. This will be a huge change for me as I am currently in facilities management…any midwives on here enjoy their job? Was it what you expected etc?

I left after 18 months of being qualified. I know earn more in an office job with no stress. If you enjoy being overworked, underpaid, constantly working after your shift has ended for free and endless paperwork then it is the job for you!
That bring said, someone has to do it!
It was definitely not the job I thought it would be or what it was sold as during my university lectures.

*now! Not know.

Oh really! I can imagine it is stressful etc but I wasn’t aware that the money wasn’t great either.

I think UK average is about 38k but you start at 25ish! Most of my cohort have left too and gone onto different things. When I started it was very very competitive to get a place, for example at my university 1000 people applied for 30 places so you really had to know your shit. Not sure what its like now though.

Absolutely would not recommend hospital midwifery but there’s loads of different things you can do with it. I am stuck because the money is okay now but desperately need to be doing something else that doesn’t leave me in constant fear for my livelihood (due to the pressures of staffing (and facilities!) making care unsafe).

I think there is currently a staffing crisis in midwifery as everyone is leaving in droves

I'm a student midwife. It's stressful and not exactly what I expected - the midwives I work with are absolutely frazzled, and as a student I (and many others in my cohort) feel like a nuisance, we are always chasing midwives to sign off our proficiencies and timesheets, but understandably it's not a priority, which means we get questioned by the uni as to why we've not had things signed but it's not for lack of trying - we usually end up having to do extra hours to get stuff signed off.
It's also very competitive to get a place.
That being said, I don't regret it, but you really need to be sure it's what you want!

I am bringing this add back to life.
Thinking about midwifery but really worried about the current crisis in the UK... Any midwifes on MN wanting to share their experiences?